The First Word: Taxy-Turny

On this day — a key Senator continues his push to overhaul the state’s business tax structure, as Straus sounds a note of caution; more school districts announce teacher layoffs; the Supreme Court stays a Texas execution; a lawsuit is filed over redistricting; the House begins work on legislation that would enhance checkpoints for cars heading to the border; and whatever you do, don’t mess with Texas (history)

Ogden said at the late Monday hearing that he would “feel a little bit better if businesses who are here testifying against this would help us fix the business tax. But it just seems like, well, we can’t fix that, either.

“So, we’re going to continue to struggle, trying to get a budget that will work for the state of Texas that will also balance. But any budget that we pass, even the budget that the House passed, has a large structural deficit that we have failed to address,” Ogden said. “And I think, as government officials, we’re failing in our duty to the public.”

Ogden said Tuesday that by the structural deficit, he means the approximately $2 billion annually that the state business tax is short of projections made when it was overhauled in 2006.

“I don’t think in the next 54 days there’s much chance of that,” Straus said during an appearance at the University of Texas.

“It’s not something you want to do hastily. It’s something that has to be thoughtfully done.”

Haurwitz reports that the remarks came from a question at an event at the University of Texas, where Straus defended the deep cuts the House budget would make to public universities and the massive tuition hikes universities have used over the last decade to keep up with declining state funding.

***School Layoffs – 37th Edition

The Houston Chronicle’s Zen Zheng and Mike Glenn report that Fort Bend ISD, Katy ISD and Pasadena ISD have all announced significant cuts to teaching and support staffs as districts prepare to grapple with a significant loss of state funds. While districts have said that rehiring might be possible of the prospects for state funding improve, they weren’t likely.

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***Yet Another Rebuke from SCOTUS

The Houston Chronicle’s Allan Turner reports that the US Supreme Court has ordered an emergency stay, preventing the state from executing Cleve Foster. It’s the second time in fourth months that the nation’s highest court has stopped Foster’s execution. Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling came as the Texas Supreme Court considered arguments that proper regulations weren’t followed when the state changed the cocktail administered for lethal injection.

Foster, 47, convicted in the 2002 rape-murder of 30-year-old Nyaneur Pal, was scheduled to be put to death at 6 p.m. Tuesday. He would have been the first Texas killer executed using the state’s reformulated lethal three-drug cocktail.

At the core of Foster’s case is the contention that his early trial and appeals attorneys provided insufficient representation when they failed to challenge blood-spatter evidence prosecutors said linked him to the crime.

In January, the Supreme Court spared Foster’s life — minutes before his execution – to consider that claim. Days later, it rejected the appeal and an April execution date was set.

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***Redraw Redistricting

The San Antonio Express-News’ Lynn Brezosky reports that a group of Hispanic lawmakers have filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the redistricting process, because they claim the Census data is flawed and undercounts Hispanics. They claim that with a fair count, Hispanics would receive greater representation in the Texas Legislature and US Congress.

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***Checkpoint Charlie to the Valley?

The House committee on public safety and homeland security began considering a bill that would allow for DPS officers to work together more closely with federal officers in a bid to slow the flow the of money and guns into Mexico.

The legislation comes just six weeks after an ICE officer was shot and killed in northern Mexico by a drug gang. The Chronicle/Express-News Austin Bureau’s Nolan Hicks reports that representatives and DPS Director Steve McCraw said that they expected the drug cartels to adapt to this latest tactic from law enforcement.